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Historic  Papers 


ON   THE: 


Causes 


OF   THE: 


Civil  War 


BY 

Mrs,  Eugervia  Dunlap' Potts 
'C'P  Trtc    -'.'•'    ' 
Lexington,  Ky.  Chapter  U.  D.  C. 


I 


Read  Before  the  Lexington  Chapter  U.  D,  C.,  February  14,  1909, 
By  Eugenia  Dunlap  Potts,  Historian 


t  No  pen  or  brush  can  picture  life  in  the  old  Southern 

States  in  the  ante-bellum  days.  The  period  comprehends 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  history  without  a  parallel. 
A  separate  and  distinct  civilization  was  there  represented, 
the  like  of  which  can  never  be  reproduced.  Socially,  intel 
lectually,  politically  and  religiously,  she  stood  pre-eminent 
among-  nations.  It  was  the  spirit  of  the  cavalier  that  creat 
ed  and  sustained  our  greatness.  Give  the  Puritan  his  due, 
and  still  the  fact  remains.  The  impetus  that  led  to  freedom 
from  Great  Britain,  came  from  the  South.  A  Southern 
General  led  the  ragged  Continentals  on  to  victory.  South 
ern  jurists  and  Southern  statesmanship  guided  the  councils 
of  wisdom.  The  genius  of  war  pervaded  her  people.  She 
gave  presidents,  cabinet  officers,  commanders,  tacticians 
and  strategists.  Her  legislation  extended  the  country's 
territory  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific. 

A  writer  aptly  says:  "For  more  than  fifty  formative 
years  of  our  history  the  Old  South  was  the  dominating 
power  in  the  nation,  as  it  had  been  in  the  foundation  of  the 
colonies  out  of  which  came  the  republic,  and  later  in  fight 
ing  its  battles  of  independence  and  in  forming  its  policies 
of  government.  *  *  *  Whatever  of  strength  or  symmetry  the 
republic  had  acquired  at  home,  or  reputation  it  had  achieved 
abroad,  in  those  earlier  crucial  days  of  its  history,  was 
largely  due  to  the  patriotism  and  ability  of  Southern  states 
manship.  Why  that  scepter  of  leadership  has  passed  from 


its  keeping,  or  why  the  New  South  is  no  longer  at  the  front 
of  national  leadership,  is  a  question  that  might  well  give 
pause  to  one  who  recalls  the  brave  days  when  the  Old 
South  sat  at  the  head  of  the  table  and  directed  the  affairs  of 
the  nation." 

There  was  the  manor  and  there  was  the  cabin.  Each 
head  of  the  house  was  a  potentate  in  his  own  domain — an 
absolute  ruler  of  a  principality  as  marked  as  in  feudal  times, 
without  the  despotism  of  the  feudal  system. 

The  plantation  of  the  old  regime  was  tastefully  laid  out 
for  beauty  and  productiveness.  Flower  gardens  and  kitchen 
gardens  stretched  away  into  the  magnificence  of  orange 
trees,  shady  avenues  and  fruitful  plants.  Unbroken  retreats 
of  myrtle  and  laurel  and  tropical  foliage  bantered  the  sun  to 
do  his  worst.  Flowers  perfumed  the  air;  magnolia  bloom 
and  other  rich  tree  flora  regaled  the  senses;  extensive  orch 
ards  yielded  fruit  of  all  kinds  adapted  to  the  soil  and 
climate ;  vineyards  were  heavy  with  much  bearing.  Fields 
were  carefully  cultivated,  till  such  a  thing  as  the  failure  of 
crops  was  unknown.  It  was  largely  supplied  with  sheep 
and  their  wool,  with  geese,  ducks,  turkeys,  guinea  fowls, 
and  every  variety  of  poultry  without  stint.  Eggs  were 
gathered  by  the  bushel,  myriads  of  birds  clouded  the  sun, 
and  daily  intoxicated  their  little  brains  with  the  juice  of  the 
black  cherry.  Herds  of  cattle  were  luxuriously  pastured 
by  Pompey  and  his  sable  mates. 

There  were  quantities  of  rich  cheese,  fresh  butter,  milk 
and  cream-  Vast  barns  were  gorged  with  corn,  rice  and 
hay;  hives  were  bursting  with  honey;  vegetables  were 
luscious  and  exhaustless;  melons  sprinkled  and  dotted 
many  acres  of  patches;  shrimp  and  fish  filled  the  waters; 
crawfish  wriggled  in  the  ditches;  raccoons  and  opossums 
formed  the  theme  of  many  a  negro  ditty.  Carriages  and 
horses  filled  the  stables,  and  splendid  mules  were  well-fed 
and  curried  at  the  barns.  High  up  on  the  cypress  trees 
hung  the  grey  moss  with  which  the  upholsterer  at  yon  mar 
ket  place  replenished  his  furniture  vans.  The  farm  produce 
alone  yielded  six  or  seven  thousands  a  year,  while  the  plan 
tation  crops  of  cotton,  sugar,  and  rice  were  clear  profit. 
Rows  of  white  cabins  were  the  homes  of  the  colored  citizens 


of  the  community.  An  infirmary  stood  apart  for  the  sick. 
The  old  grandams  cared  for  the  children.  Up  yonder  at 
the  mansion  house  Black  Marnmy  held  sway  in  the  nursery; 
Aunt  Dinah  was  cook  ;  Aunt  Rachel  carried  the  house 
keeper's  keys;  while  Jane  and  Ann,  the  mulatto  ladies' 
maids,  flitted  about  on  duty,  and  Jim  and  Jack  4t  'tended  on 
youngf  marster  and  de  gemman."  Such  hospitality  as  was 
made  possible  by  that  style  of  living  can  never  repeat  itself 
in  changed  conditions.  Grant  that  these  conditions  are 
improved.  Grant  that  the  lifted  incubus  of  slavery  has 
opened  the  doors  for  the  march* of  intellectual  and  industrial 
progress;  the  fact  remains  that  the  highest  order  of  social 
enjoyment,  and  of  the  exercise  of  the  charming  amenities  of 
life,  was  blotted  out  when  the  old  plantation  of  Dixie  land 
was  divided  up  by  the  spoils  of  war. 

It  is  interesting  to  read  of  the  first  attempt  at  a  sugar 
crop  in  Louisiana  by  a  Frenchman  named  Bore  in  1794. 
His  indigo  plant,  once  so  profitable,  had  been  attacked  and 
destroyed  by  a  worm,  and  dire  poverty  threatened.  He 
conceived  the  project  of  planting  sugar  cane.  The  great 
question  was,  would  the  syrup  granulate;  and  hundreds 
gathered  to  watch  the  experiment.  It  did  granulate,  and 
the  first  product  sold  for  twelve  thousand  dollars — a  large 
sum  at  that  time. 

The  maker  of  the  cotton  gin  worked  another  revolution 
in  commerce;  and  rice  proved  to  be  an  unfailing  staple. 
Armies  of  negroes  tilled  the  soil,  and  were  happy  in  their 
circumscribed  sphere,  humanely  cared  for  by  the  whites. 

Enter  the  home  and  lo!  a  palace  greets  you.  Massive 
mahogany  furniture,  now,  alas!  in  scattered  remnants,  meets 
the  eye  at  every  turn.  Treasures  and  elegant  trifles  of 
many  lands  attest  the  artistic  taste  of  the  owners.  Gorgeous 
china,  plate  and  glass  are  there  in  everyday  use.  Fruits 
of  the  loom  in  rarest  silk  and  linen,  embellish  the  chambers 
and  luxury  sits  enthroned.  The  chatelaine,  gracious  and 
cultured,  is  to  the  manner  born,  and  from  season  to  season 
she  fills  her  house  with  congenial  people  who  are  invited  to 
come,  but  not,  as  with  present  house  parties,  told  when  to 
go.  As  long  as  they  found  it  comfortable  and  convenient 
the  latch  string  was  out.  A  guest  was  never  permitted  to 


pay  for  anything;  expressage,  laundry  and  all  incidentals 
were  as  free  as  air,  The  question  of  money,  nowadays  im 
pertinently  thrust  forth,  was  never  hinted  at  in  the  olden 
time.  It  was  considered  bad  form,  and  the  luckless  boaster 
of  "how  poor  he  was"  would  have  been  properly  stared  at 
as  a  boor  as  well  as  a  bore. 

For  pastime  men  had  fishing  and  hunting,  and  for 
women  there  were  lawn  games  and  indoor  diversions. 
Speaking  of  the  women  of  the  South  a  writer  aptly  said: 
"They  dwell  in  a  land  goodly  and  pleasant  to  the  eye;  a 
land  of  fine  resources,  both  agricultural  and  mineral;  where 
may  be  found  fertile  cotton  fields,  vast  rice  tracts,  kirge 
sugar  plantations,  bright  skies  and  balmy  breezes.  The 
whole  land  is  plowed  by  mighty  rivers,  is  ribbed  by  long 
mountain  chains,  and  washed  by  the  sea." 

Fitting  environment,  we  add,  for  the  gorgeous  resi 
dences,  notably  in  Georgia  and  South  Carolina,  built  by  the 
nobility  and  gentry  of  the  republic,  and  inherited  by  the 
decendants  of  the  old  colonial  aristocracy.  What  wonder, 
that  they  held  themselves  aloof  from  the  manual  laborer, 
black  or  white,  and  that  they  were  uncontaminated  by  the 
attrition  of  commercial  competition.  In  the  summer  the 
family  sought  the  cooler  climate  of  old  Kentucky  or  Vir 
ginia,  or  farther  north  to  Saratoga,  Long  Branch,  or  some 
one  of  the  then  attractive  resorts.  They  traveled  in  state, 
frequently  bringing  the  family  coach,  and  never  without  a 
retinue  of  servants.  What  a  sensation  they  made!  And 
money  flowed  like  water.  The  young  men,  rich  and  idle, 
paid  court  to  pretty  girls,  sure  of  a  welcome  from  both 
parents  and  daughters,  for  to  marry  a  Southern  planter  was 
to  achieve  a  social  victory  for  all  time  to  come.  The 
mechanical  and  athletic  age  had  not  yet  dawned.  The 
accepted  escort  must  be  a  professional  man,  or  else  lord  of 
a  domain  such  as  I  have  described.  Pride  and  prejudice 
blinded  judgment,  and  the  aristocracy  of  merit  alone  was 
unappreciated. 

And  yet  the  Southern  woman,  even  of  great  wealth,  could 
not  afford  to  be  idle-  She  was  not,  save  in  exceptional  cases, 
the  useless,  half-educated,  irresponsible  creature  she  has 
been  represented.  Some  there  are  always  and  everywhere 


whose  lives  are  given  over  to  fads,  fancies  and  frivolities. 
But  the  true  mothers  were  priestesses  at  the  home  altar, 
and  kept  the  sacred  fires  bright  and  burning.  Their  duty 
was  to  keep  others  busy,  and  to  direct  and  oversee  the  vast 
domestic  machinery  of  the  home. 

Their  views  were  somewhat  narrow,  for  as  yet  the  bright 
sun  of  woman's  emancipation  was  barely  peeping  over  the 
horizon.  Their  minds  did  not  grasp  the  vexed  questions  of 
theology,  politics,  or  economics.  They  accepted  the  faith 
of  their  fathers,  and  shifted  all  burdens  to  stronger  shoul 
ders.  They  were  eminently  religious  and  charitable.  Ways 
and  means  were  at  hand,  and  they  did  not  bother  their 
brains  with  isms  and  ologies.  Regular  attendance  upon  the 
nearest  church,  and  reverence  for  the  clergy,  were  promi 
nent  in  their  creed. 

Education  for  the  masses  was  not  provided,  as  it  is 
now;  but  the  majority  of  the  better  class  were  finely  edu 
cated,  either  at  Northern  schools,  or  by  the  governess,  and 
tutor  at  home.  In  many  cases  where  the  wife  was  widow 
ed,  she  nobly  and  intelligently  arose  to  the  management  of 
business  affairs.  If  misfortune  came,  and  the  woman  felt 
obliged  to  earn  a  livelihood,  it  did  not  occur  to  her  to  seek 
it  behind  a  counter  or  in  a  workshop  as  we  do  in  this  gen 
eration.  She  was  inclined  to  walk  in  the  old  paths,  and 
follow  old  customs.  They  believed  their  own  skies  were 
bluest,  tkeir  own  cornfields  greenest,  their  tobacco  finest, 
their  cotton  the  whitest  on  earth.  They  were  devoted  to 
old  friends,  to  old  manners  and  customs,  and  gloried  in  their 
birthright. 

In  the  line  of  literary  productions  the  South  was  back 
ward.  Augusta  Evans  Wilson's  remarkable  novels,  Bui  ah, 
St.  Elmo,  and  others,  were  read  and  re-read,  not  for  any 
lasting  good,  but  for  passing  interest,  and  largely  for  the 
glamour  that  invested  a  Southern  writer.  Madame  LeVert 
produced  "Souvenirs  of  Travel,"  among  the  very  earliest 
of  books  on  European  scenes.  Marion  Harland's  works 
were  read,  and  possessed  the  selling  quality  notwithstand 
ing  the  bitter  taste  left  by  her  humiliated  heroines.  Caroline 
Lee  Hentz,  Mrs.  Holmes,  Mrs.  Southworth,  and  a  small 
army  of  essayists  in  the  field,  clamored  for  recognition;  but 


time  was  when  to  see  the  Southern  woman  in  print  was 
an  innovation  displeasing  to  the  household  gods.  Time 
came  when  the  slumbering;  faculties  were  stirred  into  splen 
did  and  successful  activity.  The  depth  of  the  natures  hith 
erto  unsounded  arose  to  the  new  demand^  right  valiantly. 
We  behold  its  fruits  in  the  rearing-  of  splendid  monuments, 
the  erection  of  noble  charity  institutions,  the  endowing  of 
colleges,  the  equipment  of  missionaries,  the  awakening  of 
wide  philanthropies,  and  in  the  higher  lines  of  Christian 
endeavor.  The  men  who  shouldered  arms,  from  father  to 
son,  to  defend  their  States  rights,  were  the  same  who,  in 
times  of  peace,  knew  no  burdens  of  life  save  those  they  vol 
untarily  assumed.  The  women  who  sewed  night  and  day 
upon  garments  for  field  and  hospital,  were  the  same  who 
were  wont  to  employ  their  white  hands  with  fragile  china 
and  heirloom  plate,  or  dally  with  needlework  in  the  morn 
ing  room.  These  were  the  mothers  who,  standing  by  the 
slaughtered  first-born,  gave  his  sword  to  the  next  son,  and 
bade  him  go  at  his  country's  call.  There  was  the  spirit  of 
heroism  not  surpassed  by  the  heroes  of  the  sterner  sex. 
They  suffered  privations  and  terrors  without  a  murmur. 

To  visit  one  of  these  ante-bellum  homes  was  a  privilege 
indeed.  And  something  of  the  spirit  of  the  canaille  of  the 
French  revolution  must  have  animated  the  foreign  hordes, 
who,  not  content  with  confiscating  these  captured  palaces, 
ruthlessly  cut  and  destroyed  the  richness  and  elegance  they 
were  beholding  for  the  first  time  in  their  commonplace  lives. 
It  was  not  the  spirit  of  conquest,  but  of  vandalism  that 
animated  them.  Wanton  destruction  and  not  spoliation, 
common  in  war  tactics,  was  their  watchword.  A  domain 
fairer  than  Elysium  opened  to  their  astonished  gaze,  when 
ever  they  penetrated  some  sylvan  grove  where  stood  the 
plantation  manor  house. 

Alas!  for  the  old  plantation  days!  Alas!  for  the  easy 
going  spirit  that  marked  the  times!  The  long,  pitiless,  hot 
sun-days  were  not  mspirers  of  extraordinary  energy.  Yan 
kee  thrift  was  as  pigmy  play  to  these  owners  of  bursting 
coffers.  The  hurry  and  bustle  of  our  Northern  neighbors 
was  an  unknown  quantity  in  their  economy.  It  is  to  the 
forcible  wresting  from  the  South  of  their  inherited  institu- 


tions,  of  the  machinery  which  made  their  social  order  possi 
ble,  that  the  land  of  Dixie  owes  the  prosperity  and  thrift  of 
to-day.  Evil  was  done  and  good  came  therefrom.  Years 
of  wasted  substance  and  enforced  poverty  were  groped 
through,  till  at  last  the  day-star  rose  upon  new  industries ; 
hands  and  feet,  and  awakened  faculties  spring  to  the  keynote 

of  progress,  and  "Our  days  are  marching  on." 

*       #     '  #       *       * 

(Here  were  inserted  in  the  manuscript  twenty  pages 
from  the  diary  of  the  Historian,  written  when,  as  a  school 
girl,  she  visited  with  her  parents  some  of  the  sugar  planta 
tions  of  Louisiana.  They  give  the  picture  by  an  eye-witness 
of  the  social  and  commercial  life  in  the  South;  but  while, 
perhaps,  interesting  in  the  reading  of  a  paper,  are  not  neces 
sary,  in  print,  to  the  theme.) 

Future  generations  may  hug  to  themselves  the  consola 
tion  that  we  were  pulled  down  only  to  be  built  up  again  in 
greater  prosperity,  under  a  different  order  of  things.  The 
tears  and  woes  of  the  old  South  may  change  into  smiles  and 
good  cheer,  forgetting  the  glory  that  once  encircled  us  like 
a  radiant  halo.  But  many  there  are  who  feel  that  "Such 
things  were,  and  were  most  dear  to  us!"  These  look  back 
with  brimming  eyes  and  force  down  the  rising  sob,  as  they 
sorrowfully  murmur : 

"My  native  land,  good  night." 


Slavery 


Read  March  14,  1909, 

In  my  first  paper  I  endeavored  to  present  a  picture  of 
the  sunny  Southland  in  the  ante-bellum  days,  when  wealth 
and  culture  and  hospitalty  were  the  watchwords  of  the 
hour — before  the  invasion  of  hostile  hordes  had  vandalized 
the  sacred  old  traditions,  and  crumbled  the  household  gods 
in  the  dust. 

But  long  before  the  tocsin  of  civil  war  had  sounded 
there  were  mutterings  of  thunder  in  the  halls  of  Congress, 
and  the  cloud,  at  first  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  was 
yearly  gathering  force,  till  it  finally  burst  in  a  cyclone  of 
passion  and  prejudice  and  tyranny,  and  swept  all  before  it 
in  one  besom  of  destruction.  /That  the  question  of  slavery 
lay  at  the  root  of  the  dissension  cannot  be  doubted  by  any 
who  are  conversant  with  the  political  history  of  the  United 
Slates.  The  tariff  rulings  had  their  weight,  as  did  the 
unfair  division  of  new  territory;  but  the  main  issue  was 
negro  slavery,  which,  always  a  stumbling  block  to  the 
North,  had  most  violently  agitated  the  whole  country  for 
eleven  years  before  the  appeal  to  arms.J 

Negro  laborers  were  brought  to  Virginia  and  sold  as 
slaves,  fifty  years  alter  the  first  cargo  landed  at  Jamestown. 
In  the  year  1619,  a  Dutch  vessel  brought  over  twenty  negroes 
to  be  thus  held  in  bondage.  To  the  men  who  watched  the 
landing  of  this  handful  of  Africans  it  was  doubtless  an  un 
important  matter,  yet  it  w  is  the  beginning  of  a  system  that 
had  an  immense  influence  on  our  country.  In  those  days 
few  persons  in  the  world  opposed  slavery.  Hven  kings  and 
queens  made  money  out  of  the  traffic.  But  for  tobacco 
slavery  would  not  have  taken  such  a  hold  on  America. 
When  it  was  found  that  the  negro  made  the  cheapest  laborer 
for  cultivating  the  plantation  many  more  were  imported. 

They  were  also  employed  in  the  New  England  and 
Middle  States,  largely  as  household  servants,  the  soil  not 


being-  favorable  to  the  production  of  rice,  indigo,  cotton  and 
sugar,  which  were  the  staples  of  Southern  agriculture. 
Moreover,  the  African  is  not  physically  adapted  to  the 
Southern  climate.  He  was  especially  liable  to  tubercular 
disease — hence  he  was  sold  to  Southern  planters,  except  in 
a  few  cases  where  the  Puritan  spirit  caused  his  emanci 
pation.  ;. 

In  the  year  that  Harvard  College  was  erected,  1636,  the 
first  slave  ship  built  in  America  was  launched  at  Marble- 
head,  Mass.  It  brought  a  large  cargo  of  slaves  to  be  sold  to 
the  settlers.  During  the  one  hundred  years  preceding  1776, 
millions  of  slaves  had  been  imported  to  the  States.  King 
George  III  favored  the  institution,  and  forbade  any  inter 
ference  with  the  colonies  in  this  matter.  The  horrors  of 
slavery  in  Massachusetts,  as  recorded  by  reliable  documents 
of  the  period,  far  exceed  all  that  has  been  charged  against 
the  South,  by  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  or  any  other  records  of 
fact  or  romance.  The  Encyclopedia  of  Political  Economy 
and  United  States  History,  Vol.  3,  page  733,  has  the  follow 
ing  taken  from  the  New  York  Evening  Post: 

"Daring  the  eighteen  months  of  the  years  1859-60  eighty-five  slave 
ships  (giving  their  names;  belonging  to  New  York  merchants,  brought 
in  cargoes  annually  of  between  3(KOOO  and  60.000  African  slaves,  who 
were  solfl  in  Brazil,  there  being  great  demand  tor  them  in  that  coun 
try,  owing  to  new  industries.  Old  Peter  Paneuil  built  Faneuil  Hall 
with  slave  money,  and  many  other  fortunes  were  thus  made." 

Thomas  Jefferson  says  in  his  autobiography  that  though 
the  Northern  people  owned  very  few  slaves  themselves,  at 
the  time  of  the  writing  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
yet  they  had  been  pretty  considerable  carriers  of  slaves  to 
others.  In  1761  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  alarmed  at 
the  rapid  increase  of  slaves,  passed  an  act  restricting-  their 
importation,  but  as  many  persons  in  England  were  growing 
rich  from  the  trade  the  act  was  negatived,  or  vetoed.  While 
providing  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  planters  to  hold  slaves,  the  North  thought  that 
the  laws  that  were  in  the  course  of  events  to  be  passed  for 
prohibiting  their  foreign  importation,  would  so  work  out  so 
that  the  institution  would  die  a  natural  death.  They  little 
dreamed  that  economical  and  political  conditions  were  des 
tined  to  fasten  it  upon  the  South.  At  the  framing  of  the 
Constitution  slaves  were  held  in  all  the  States  except  Massa- 


chusetts,  and  she  had  only  very  lately  abolished  the  institu 
tion.  The  South  owned  twice  as  many,  by  reason  of  her 
special  agricultural  products,  and  even  at  this  early  day  the 
slavery  question  became  sectional.  Mason's  and  Dixon's 
line,  which  was  an  imaginary  boundry  between  Pennsyl 
vania  and  Maryland,  was  recognized  as  the  division  line 

between  the  free  and  slave  states. 

*        *        *        * 

(Here  are  omitted  several  pages  illustrating  the  utter  absence  of 
affinity  between  the  two  sections  of  the  country,  introduced  in  the 
manuscript  as  social,  not  historical  matter.) 

During  the  Revolutionary  war  it  was  deemed  expedient 
to  enlist  the  colored  race  as  soldiers.  In  Rhode  Island  they 
were  made  free  by  law,  on  condition  that  they  enlist  in  the 
army,  and  this  measure  met  with  Gen'l  Washington's 
approval.  After  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  in  1777, 
Vermont,  Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts  freed  their  slaves 
and  permitted  them  to  vote,  "provided  they  had  the  requisite 
age,  property  and  residence."  The  15th  Amendment  of  a 
later  day  was  an  outrageous  document,  framed  regardless 
of  any  such  qualifications,  but  giving  the  ignorant  black 
mail  rights  even  above  the  white  citizens. 

In  order  to  induce  the  Southern  States  to  accept  the 
Federal  Constitution  in  the  beginning  and  have  the  country 
become  a  Union  of  States,  the  opposers  of  slavery  had  to 
compromise  the  use  of  terms,  and  take  measures  that  seem 
ed  expedient.  They  fondly  hoped  as  time  rolled  on,  to 
legislate  the  freedom  of  slaves.  But  the  invention  of  the 
cotton  gin  by  Eli  Whitney,  in  1793,  immensely  increased 
the  value  of  slave  labor,  and  forever  fastened  the  institution 
upon  the  Southern  planters,  so  far  as  future  legislation  was 
concerned.  It  had  been  so  difficult  to  separate  the  cotton 
fiber  by  hand,  requiring  a  whole  day  to  one  pound,  that  it 
was  only  a  minor  product;  but  now  the  wonderful  source  of 
revenue  made  possible  by  the  new  invention,  caused  the 
importation  of  many  more  slaves,  and  cotton  growing  in  a 
million  acres  became  king  of  the  marts.  The  planter  would 
not  willingly  give  up  his  property  honestly  acquired,  and 
plainly  permitted  under  the  constitution. 

Slavery  was  a  constant  obstacle  to  the  perfect  Union  of 
States.  In  1790  during  the  second  session  of  the  first  con- 
gress,  the  Quakers  and  the  Pennsylvania  Abolition  Society, 


through  Banjamin  Franklin,  its  President,  prayed  Congress 
to  restore  to  liberty  those  held  in  bondage.  The  question 
was  debated  in  the  House  in  a  warm,  excited  manner. 
Members  from  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  argued  that 
slavery,  being  commended  by  the  Bible,  could  not  be 
wrong;  that  the  Southern  States  would  not  have  entered 
into  the  Confederacy  unless  their  property  had  been  guar 
anteed  them,  and  any  action  of  the  general  government 
looking  to  the  emancipation  of  slavery  would  not  be  sub 
mitted  to.  They  said  that  South  Carolina  and  Georgia 
could  only  be  cultivated  by  negro  slaves,  for  the  climate, 
the  nature  of  the  soil,  and  ancient  habits,  precluded  the 
whites  from  performing  the  labor.  If  the  negroe  were  freed 
he  would  not  remain  in  those  States;  hence  all  the  fertile 
rice  and  indigo  swamps  must  be  deserted  and  would  become 
a  wilderness.  Furthermore  the  prohibiting  of  the  slave 
trade  was  at  that  time  unconstitutional.  James  Madison 
poured  oil  on  the  troubled  waters  by  stating  that  Congress 
could  not  interfere  according  to  constitutional  restrictions. 
"Yet,"  he  said,  "there  are  a  variety  of  ways  by  which  it 
could  countenance  the  abolition ;  and  regulations  might  be 
made  to  introduce  the  freed  slaves  into  the  new  States  to  be 
formed  out  of  the  Western  territory."  (In  parenthesis  I  re 
mark  that  if  Madison  could  have  looked  down  the  years,  he 
would  have  found  that  even  though  emancipated,  the  negro 
will  not  leave  the  white  settlements.  Take  our  own  little 
city  of  L,exington  where  some  17,000  of  them  are  congregat 
ed,  living  in  discomfort  and  poverty  in  most  cases;  yet 
their  nature  is  to  depend  in  some  fashion  upon  their  white 
neighbors  and  employers.) 

It  was  finally  decided  in  the  House  that  Congress  could 
not  prohibit  the  slave  trade  until  the  year  1808 — that  Con 
gress  had  no  authority  to  interfere  in  the  emancipation  of 
slaves,  or  in  the  treatment  of  them  within  any  of  the  States. 
This  last  resolution  which  is  of  great  historic  importance, 
may  be  found  on  page  1523  of  the  II  Vol.  of  Annals  of 

Congress. 

Washington  wrote  to  David  Stuart  in  June  1790:  "The 
introduction  of  the  Quaker  memorial  respecting  slavery 
was,  to  be  sure,  not  only  ill-timed,  but  occasioned  a  great 
waste  of  time." 


In  1793  the  Fugitive  Slave  law  was  passed,  whereby  a 
runaway  slave  captured  in  a  free  State,  must  be  returned  to 
his  owner.  As  the  new  States  were  admitted  into  the  Union 
they  came  in  for  the  most  part  alternately  free  and  slave 
States.  This  was  done  to  preserve  the  balance  of  power  in 
Congress. 

The  great  aggressive  Abolition  movement  that  led 
evantually  to  the  Civil  War  had  its  birth  in  1831.  Fanatics 
like  John  Brown,  and  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  fanned 
into  flame  the  sparks  that  had  so  long  smouldered,  till  the 
helpless  negro  was  dragged  from  his  havens  of  peace  and 
comfort.  If  he  felt  bitterness  towards  the  whites,  what  was 
to  prevent  his  rising  in  insurrection  and  slaying  them  all? 
There  were  plantations  where  600  or  700  slaves  were  govern 
ed  by  two  or  three  white  owners.  They  occupied  little  vil 
lages  and  had  no  care  upon  earth.  They  had  their  pastimes 
and  religious  worships.  "The  courtly  old  planter,  high 
bred  and  gentle,  the  plantation  4 'uncle"  who  copied  the 
master's  manners;  and  the  broad-bosomed  black  mammy, 
with  vari-colored  turban,  spotless  apron,  and  beaming  face, 
the  friend  and  helper  of  every  living  thing  in  cabin  or  man 
sion,  formed  a  trio  we  love  to  remember."  The  black 
woman  cared  more  for  her  white  nurslings  than  her  own 
child.  This  seems  unnatural,  but  it  was  true;  and  many  of 
us  recall  the  times  that  the  mistress  of  the  house  had  to 
interfere  to  prevent  the  kitchen  mother  from  cruelly  whip 
ping  her  naughty  offspring.  Some  relic  of  ancient  African 
barbarism  still  lingered  in  their  untutored  minds.  We  loved 
our  colored  playmates,  and  their  sable  mothers  and  fathers. 
Many  a  winning  story  of  "way  down  upon  de  ole  planta 
tion"  has  been  truthfully  told.  Will  S.  Hays  has  immortal 
ized  it  in  song. 

A  Southern  writer  has  thus  portrayed  the  Xmas  time : 
"For  weeks  before  hand  everything  was  full  of  stir  and  prep 
aration.  Holly  and  mistletoe  and  cedar  were  being  put 
about  the  rooms  of  the  big  house  to  welcome  home  the  boys 
and  girls  from  school.  Secret  councils  were  held  as  to  the 
Xmas  gifts  to  be  given  to  everyone,  white  and  black.  The 
woodpile  was  loaded  with  oak  and  hickory  logs  to  make 
bright  and  warm  the  Christinas  nights.  The  negro  seam- 


stresses  were  busy  making- new  suits  for  all  the  servants." 
The  King  was  in  the  parlor  counting-  out  his  money — to 
pay  out  for  gifts  of  the  season — and  the  queen  was  in  the 
kitchen  dealing-  bread  and  honey — to  paraphrase  Mother 
Goose-  Into  the  stately  plantation  home,  with  its  lofty 
white  columns,  its  big  rooms,  and  its  great  fireplaces,  pour 
ed  the  sons  and  daughters,  grandchildren,  uncles  and  aunts, 
nephews  and  nieces.  Assembled  around  the  groaning 
board,  the  patriarch  asked  the  divine  blessing  and  the  twin 
spirits  of  Christianity  were  rife  in  the  land.  There  was  only 
a  fitful  sleep  for  the  small  boys  and  girls,  who  were  up  at 
peep  of  day,  stealing  from  room  to  room  crying  ''Christmas 
Gift!"  Out  on  the  back  poarches  waited  the  negroes  in 
grinning  rows  to  follow  the  example.  All  week  the  cabin 
fires  burned  brightly  and  constant  was  the  rejoicing  over 
their  treasures,  not  forgetting  the  grand  eatables  and  the 
big  bowl  of  egg-nogg. 

Negroes  are  a  religious  as  well  as  a  superstitious  race. 
At  midnight  Saturday  it  was  their  custom  to  ring  the  great 
plantation  bell,  and  spend  the  next  several  hours  in  exhort 
ing,  praying  and  singing  their  curious,  doleful  hymns.  The 
whites  gave  them  instruction  and  training  along  these  lines. 
Heart  and  conscience  were  alike  cultivated — not  alone  the 
sounding  brass  and  tinkling  cymbal.  Statistics  show  that 
there  were  466,000  slaves  belonging  to  churches  in  the 
South:  Methodist,  Baptist,  Presbyterian,  Episcopalian,  and 
other  sects.  So  the  owners  of  these  christianized  people 
thought  that  they  were  doing  missionary  work  in  saving 
them  from  the  cannibalism  of  heathen  Africa.  Both  men 
and  women  were  taught  trades  and  useful  occupations. 
There  were  tanners,  shoemakers,  blacksmiths,  farmers, 
gardners,  horticulturists  and  carpenters  among  the  men. 
The  women  could  sew,  cook,  card,  spin,  weave,  knit,  wash, 
iron,  in  fact  what  they  produced  in  this  way  would  put  to 
shame  the  acquirements  and  accomplishments  of  free  labor. 
Many  of  the  older  negroes  refused  to  be  freed,  when  the 
mighty  proclamation  came.  They  would  not  withdraw  from 
the  protection  of  "Old  Marster."  Look  at  the  product  of 
these  two  generations  of  freedom.  What  is  he?  Well  we 
know  the  painful  answer. 

But  while  the  buying  of   slaves  for  domestic,  or  field 


service,  was  legitimate,  the  man  who  pursued  the  traffic  as 
a  business,  and  purchased  merely  to  sell  again,  was  despised. 
He  was  termed  a  "nigger-buyer,"  and  was  a  pariah  in 
the  lowest  sense  of  ostracism.  It  was  claimed  that  there 
was  a  distinction  with  a  very  great  difference.  Three  or 
four  servants  for  ordinary  household  duties  were  deemed 
sufficient.  On  a  farm  more  hands  were  needed,  and  the 
plantations  farther  south  required  several  hundred.  The 
refractory  slave  of  Kentucky  and  the  border  states,  was  sold 
"down  the  river,"  in  commercial  parlance,  where  the  disci 
pline  of  the  rice,  sugar  and  cotton  plantations  kept  in  check 
his  evil  inclinations.  There  might  have  been  cases  of  cruel 
punishment,  but  the  rule  was  kindness — if  for  no  other 
reason,  the  master  would  not  injure  that  which  stood  for 
money,  for  property.  The  expense  of  keeping  slaves  was 
enormous.  Where  is  the  laborer  of  today  who  is  furnished 
his  house,  clothing,  doctors,  medicine,  and  not  a  little 
pocket  money  on  occasions? 

The  South  employed  her  laborers  to  produce  the  great 
staple  of  cotton,  which  was  to  clothe  mankind.  They  were 
properly  clothed,  fed  and  made  comfortable.  In  addition, 
they  were  cared  for  when  sick,  and  there  existed  the  warm 
est  affection  for  the  majority  of  them.  LThe  world  can 
nowhere  show  human  beings  as  care-free  in  bondage  as  were 
the  negroes  of  the  ante-bellum  days.  ^  Judge  the  Southern 
owner  by  the  rule  and  not  the  exception.  As  well  judge  a 
town  by  its  halt,  maimed,  blind,  diseased  and  lawless  citiz 
ens,  as  the  slave  owners  by  the  occasional  acts  of  oppression 
to  be  found  on  the  plantations.  But  it  was  the  "Down-east" 
Yankee  overseer  who  was  cruel — not  the  master.  It  was 
the  African  in  New  England  who  was  denied  religious  teach 
ing  and  even  baptism.  There  was  no  sympathy  there,  to 
quote  from  a  writer,  for  the  poor  creatures  transplanted 
from  their  native  sunny  clime,  dying  by  hundreds  from  dis 
ease  on  the  bleak  Northern  shores.  It  was  merely  a  question 
of  profit  and  loss.  They  were  sold  to  the  South  as  fast  as 
they  could  be  shipped.  Even  when  the  great  hue  and  cry 
for  freedom  led  the  Northern  Senators  to  legislate  for  the 
cessation  of  foreign  slavery  in  1803,  these  great  philanthrop 
ists  rushed  over  some  5,000  slaves  to  sell  to  the  South  before 


the  limited  date  could  come  around.  Many  prominent  rich 
men  of  New  England  made  their  money  by  this  traffic,  then 
pulled  a  long  face  of  condemnation  for  the  Southern  plant 
er,  whose  money  had  been  paid  over  to  swell  the  Northern 
coffers. 

IT  IS  WORTHY  OF  NOTE  THAT  THE  SOUTH 
NEVER  OWNED  OR  SAILED  A  SLAVE  SHIP. 

In  1861  Mr.  C.  C.  Glay,  of  Alabama,  made  a  bitter 
speech  in  the  United  States  Senate.  Part  of  his  arraign 
ment  was  that  not  a  decade  had  passed  that  the  North  had 
not  persecuted  the  South  on  account  of  her  slaves. 

"You  denied  us  Christian  communion  because  you  could  not  endure 
slave-holding-.  You  refused  us  permission  to  sojourn,  or  even  pass 
through  the  North  with  our  property.  You  refused  us  any  share  of 
the  lands  acquired  mainly  by  our  diplomacy  and  blood  and  treasure. 
You  robbed  us  of  our  property  and  refused  to  restore  it." 

The  speaker  went  minutely  into  the  outrages  perpetrat 
ed  by  the  Abolition  party.  The  list  of  oppressions  had 
reached  a  crisis.  Meanwhile  the  cotton  and  the  cane  went 
on  in  Dixie  land,  to  the  weird  ditties  and  the  quaint  folk-lore 
of  the  happy-go-lucky  race.  So  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
found  the  American  slave  in  the  heighth  of  his  prosperity, 
unmindful  of  so-called  wrongs,  and  utterly  unfit  for  the 
boasted  freedom  that  was  thrust  upon  him.  The  cruel 
decree  was  carried  out,  and  millions  of  helpless  beings  were 
turned  adrift  without  rudder  or  compass,  to  bemoan  the  loss 
of  the  good  old  times  when  they  were  provided  with  the 
comforts  of  life  they  were  nevermore  to  know.  With  the 
moral  question  of  slavery  this  paper  has  nothing  to  do. 
Facts,  and  facts  alone,  dictate  the  record.  But  who  has 
been,  and  who  is  now,  the  friend  of  the  erstwhile  slave? 
The  Northerner  or  the  Southerner?  Says  one:  ''We  have 
freed  you,  but  we  don't  want  you."  Says  the  other:  "We 
did  not  free  you,  but  we  will  take  you  and  make  you  com 
fortable.  We  love  your  people — you,  who  have  rocked  us 
on  your  faithful  breasts — who  have  interlarded  our  very 
speech  with  your  dialect,  and  who  were  our  playmates  in 
the  joyous  days  of  youth.  We  have  laid  your  hoary  heads 
in  honored  graves,  and  will  treasure  your  memory  till  the 
final  hour  when  death  shall  make  all  men  equal." 


Secession 


Read  April  11,  1909, 

We  seem  not  to  have  been  a  happy  family  during-  our 
first  one  hundred  years  as  a  Union  of  States.  We  quarrelled 
frequently  among  ourselves,  and,  like  the  dissatisfied 
children  of  the  household,  there  was  oft-thieatened  disrup 
tion.  If  you  do  not  treat  me  fairly  I  will  leave  home,  said 
the  stubborn  Northern  child,  no  less  than  the  warm-hearted 
Southern  offspring-.  And  they  stood  alike  in  the  attitude  of 
going  out  the  door  the  moment  the  provocation  became  un 
bearable.  /jThe  riRnt  of  secession  and  the  thought  of  seces 
sion  was  frequently  in  the  mind  all  along  the  infant  years  of 
the  Republic.  J  But  the  word  "Secession"  did  not  become 
a  familiar  term  until  the  early  sixties.  Then  the  greeting 
was  "Hello!  oldSecesh!"  or  "Are  you  Secesh?V./  One 
might  have  thought  that  this  awful  thing  the  South  had 
done  was  heard  of  for  the  first  time,  and  had  birth  alone  in 
the  brains  of  the  fiery  aristocrats  who  tore  themselves  awav 
from  their  plebian  cousins;  whereas  history  shows,  as  I 
have  said,  that  every  State  believed  it  had  a  right  to  secede 
from  the  general  government  by  the  wording  of  our  consti 
tution,  so  when  the  pressure  grew  too  close  the  terms, 
"Southern  Rights,"  and  "Secession,"  became  the  slogan 
of  battle  and  sounded  the  tocsin  of  war. 

Let  us  begin  at  the  beginning  and  get  at  the  actual  situa 
tion.  The  thirteen  original  colonies  were  as  follows:  Virginia 
settled  by  the  English,  called  the  cavaliers,  in  1607,  became 
a  royal  colony  in  1624.  Massachusetts,  settled  by  the  Puri 
tans  in  1620,  became  a  royal  colony  in  1629 ;  New  York,  called 
Amsterdam,  settled  by  the  Dutch  in  1623,  became  a  royal 
colony  in  1688;  the  English  were  in  New  York  in  1664. 
New  Hampshire,  settled  by  Puritans  in  1629,  became  a  royal 
colony  in  1679;  Maryland,  settled  by  Catholics  from  Eng 
land  in  J632,  became  a  royal  colony  in  1691 ;  Connecticut, 


settled  by  Dutch  and  English  in  1633,  became  a  royal  colony 
in  1662 ;  Rhode  Island  was  settled  in  1638,  and  never  became 
a  royal  colony.  She  was  excluded  from  the  New  England 
federation  because  she  harbored  all  kinds  of  religions.  She 
especially  reserved  to  herself  a  State  government  alone,  and 
a  right  to  secede  in  any  case.  So  this  terrible  crime  of 
secession  had  birth  in  that  pious,  patriotic  North  that  so 
bitterly  condemned  the  States  of  Dixie  L,and  for  clamoring 
for  a  future  right. 

Delaware,  settled  by  Swedes  in  1638,  became  a  separate 
colony,  owned  by  William  Penn,  in  1703.  North  Carolina, 
settled  by  Virginians  and  Quakers  in  1653,  became  a  royal 
colony  in  1729;  New  Jersey,  settled  by  the  English  in  1665, 
became  a  royal  colony  in  1702.  Pennsylvania,  settled  by 
Germans,  Dutch  and  Scotch-Irish  in  1681,  was  given  by 
King  Charles  II  of  England,  to  Wm.  Penn  in  1770.  South 
Carolina,  settled  by  French  Huguenots  and  Germans  in 
1691,  became  a  royal  colony  in  1729.  Georgia,  the  last 
English  colony,  was  settled  by  the  English  in  1732  and  had 
her  royal  charter  in  1762. 

I  have  given  the  colonial  dates  in  regular  order  of  chro 
nology.  A  more  convenient  division  may  be  made  thus: 
the  New  England  colonies  were  Massachusetts,  New  Hamp 
shire,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  all  belonging  to  Eng 
land  except  Rhode  Island. 

The  middle  colonies  were  New  York,  Delaware,  New 
Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  two  belonging  to  England,  and 
two  to  Wm.  Penn.  The  Southern  colonies  were  Georgia, 
Maryland,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  Virginia, 
all  belonging  to  England.  Brought  together  by  common 
cause  were  English,  French,  Germans,  Dutch,  Swedes, 
Quakers,  Episcopalians,  Catholics  and  all  desired  forms  of 
religious  worship.  Wise  legislation  indeed  was  needed  to 
harmonize  these  conflicting  elements  and  dispositions  mere 
ly  on  generly  principles.  But  Ewhen  grave  questions  came 
then  trouble  began.  What  was  to  the  commercial  interests 
of  one  section  seemed  to  militate  against  the  prosperity  of 
the  other,  and  the  glorious  ending  of  the  war  for  independ 
ence  was  soon  clouded  by  the  acts  of  Congress  concerning 
the  polity  of  the  United  States. 


The  African  Slave  Trade,  begun  by  the  North  for  pur 
poses  of  profit,  became  a  bone  of  contention  till  the  year 
1808,  when  the  law  was  passed  against  the  further  importa 
tion  of  foreign  slaves.  Those  already  owned  and  employed 
must  on  no  account  be  disturbed.  They  might  increase 
and  multiply  adlibitum  on  their  own  plantations,  but  they 
were  the  legitimate  property  of  their  owners.  Even  when 
Abraham  Lincoln  signed  the  Emancipation  Act,  he  said 
that  he  had  not  the  right  as  President  to  do  it,  but  that  it 
must  be  done  as  a  war  measure.  By  depriving  the  Southern 
soldier  of  his  laborers,  the  homes  must  go  to  waste  and  the 
strife  must  cease. 

Politically  each  of  the  original  colonies  was  independ 
ent,  had  its  own  assembly  and  its  own  governor.  From  the 
very  first  this  idea  of  State  sovereignty  was  inherent,  and 
consequently  it  was  granted.  The  royal  colonies  sent  all 
legislative  acts  to  England  to  be  approved  or  vetoed  by  the 
king.  It  must  have  required  patience  to  await  the  going 
and  returning  of  the  documents  across  the  "vasty  deep"  in 
that  day.  Those  royal  colonies  so  governed  by  the  king, 
were  New  York,  New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  Virginia  and 
Georgia.  In  the  proprietary  colonies,  or  those  granted  by- 
royalty  to  individuals,  the  owner  appointed  the  governor, 
but  the  king  exercised  the  right  of  veto  in  Pennsylvania  and 
Delaware,  but  not  in  Maryland.  The  charter  colonies  were 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  These  held 
charters  from  the  king  permitting  a  complete  government  by 
themselves.  At  this  time  black  slaves  were  in  all  the  States. 
Even  after  the  New  England  States  had  grown  rich  by  the 
selling  of  the  negroes  to  the  South,  where  the  climate  suited 
their  natures,  they  kept  up  the  traffic  in  white  slaves  who, 
too  poor  to  pay  their  passage  to  the  new  land  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey,  sold  themselves,  hoping  to  buy  back  their 
freedom  in  the,  perhaps  near  future. 

When  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  was  framed 
many  compromises  were  made.  The  framers  had  to  select 
words  with  extreme  care  lest  some  State  might  refuse  to  join 
the  federation.  A  notable  compromise,  and  the  very  first 
quarrel  was  the  one  jus*t  quoted  in  reference  to  placing  the 
limitation  of  the  slave  trade  as  far  ahead  as  1808.  The  next 
disagreement  was  about  the  war  debt.  This  was  called  the 


Assumption.  The  general  government  had  contracted  a 
debt  of  $54,000,000  and  the  States,  about  $25,000,000.  This 
was  in  1790.  Alexander  Hamilton  proposed  that  the  gov 
ernment  assume  the  whole  debt.^  Hense  the  word  4t  asump- 
tion."  The  south  argued  that$ach  state  should  pay  its  own 
debt.  That  if  the  general  government  assumed  the  State 
debts  it  would  be  taking  away  the  soverign  rights  that  had 
been  guaranteed  them,  vis:  the  right  to  do  as  they  pleased 
with  what  was  their  own,  and  that  national  legislation  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  question.  About  this  time  they  were 
looking  about  for  a  site  upon  which  to  build  the  national 
capital.  Sectional  spirit  ran  high.  New  England  declared 
that  her  states  would  secede  in  the  South  succeeded  in  defeat 
ing  assumption  and  in  getting  the  capital,  too.  So  a  com 
promise  was  effected.  The  Assumption  bill  passed,  and  the 
south  got  the  capital,  after  the  seat  of  government  was  es 
tablished  at  Philadelphia  during  ^ten  years.  In  this  year, 
too,  many  petitions  to  abolish  slavery  were  forced  upon 
Congress.  After  a  heated  debate  the  fiat  went  forth  that 
Congress  could  not  take  action  till  1808. 

Next  came  the  adding  of  ten  amendments  to  the  con 
stitution,  all  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  State  rights. 
Thomas  Jefferson  became  the  leader  of  the  Republican  party, 
afterwards  known  as  Democrats,  and  not  to  be  confounded 
with  the  Republican  party  of  today.  There  was  a  most 
bitter  wrangle  over  the  wording  of  the  Constitution,  during 
which  even  President  Washington  received  abuse.  Threats 
of  breaking  up  the  Union  ivere  heard  on  all  sides. 

Then  there  was  a  quarrel  over  the  National  Bank  ques 
tion.  The  first  one  was  established  at  Philadelphia  in  1791, 
and  the  United  States  became  a  stockholder.  The  purpose 
was  to  furnish  a  safe  currency,  and  one  that  would  be  uni 
form  throughout  the  States. 

In  1791  Vermont,  a  part  of  New  York,  was  admitted,  a 
free  state,  In  1792  Kentucky,  cut  off  from  Virginia,  enter 
ed  as  a  slave  state,  and  in  1796  Tennessee,  given  up  by 
North  Carolina,  came  in  as  a  slave  state.  Our  government 
was  involved  in  trouble  with  other  countries  in  regard  to  ter 
ritory,  but  this  sketch  has  chiefly  to  do  with  our  disputes  as 
a  family, 


While  John  Adams  was  President,  the  successor  of 
Washington,  the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws  created  a  stir  in 
the  country.  The  Federalists  gave  the  President  power  to 
send  out  of  the  country  all  foreigners  whom  he  considered 
dangerous  to  the  peace  and  safety  of  th'e  United  States. 
They  feared  that  these  foreign  citizens,  by  their  free  speech 
and  writings  might  involve  us  in  a  war  with  Great  Britian. 
This  was  the  Alien  L,aw.  The  Democrats  contended  that 
they  had  a  right  to  bring  over  all  the  foreigners  they  pleased 
and  make  them  citizens.  The  Sedition  L,aw  condemned  to 
fine  or  imprisonment  any  writer  of  false,  scandalous,  or 
malicious  statement  against  the  government,  Congress,  or 
the  President.  The  Democrats  urged  that  this  law  took 
away  freedom  of  speech  and  liberty  of  the  press.  Virginia, 
by  James  Madison,  and  Kentucky,  by  Thomas  Jefferson, 
passed  resolutions  which  have  become  famous  in  political 
history.  Each  set  of  resolutions  proclaimed  the  Union  to 
be  only  a  compact  between  the  States.  They  declared  the 
Alien  and  Sedition  laws  to  be  unconstitutional,  null  and 
void.  Virginia  actually  strengthened  her  military  forces, 
and  made  ready  for  secession  as  far  back  as  this  date,  1799. 
The  laws  were  not  passed. 

In  1803  Ohio,  the  17th  State,  was  ceded  by  Virginia, 
and  was  admitted — the  first  State  carved  from  the  North 
west  Territory,  and  employed  free  labor. 

The  purchase  of  Louisiana  from  Napoleon  in  1803  caus 
ed  much  discussion  and  interest.  It  comprised  a  vast  area 
equal  to  the  whole  United  States.  Exploring  expeditions 
were  sent  out  to  find  what  the  unknown  territory  was  like. 
Whenever  there  was  a  question  of  an  acquisition  to  the 
Union  the  slave  question  was  also  in  agitation.  We  next 
hear  of  secession  when  the  Embargo  Act  was  passed.  In 
1807  Congress,  in  order  to  avoid  the  war  with  Great  Britian 
which  was  fated  to  come  five  years  later,  enacted  that  no 
American  vessel  should  leave  the  country  for  foreign  ports. 
New  England,  where  commerce  was  still  the  chief  industry, 
suffered  most-  She  threatened  to  secede,  and  both  Massa 
chusetts  and  Connecticut  proclaimed  the  right  to  nullify 
the  law.  Two  years  later  the  act  was  repealed  and  again 
the  Union  was  saved.  Truly  Uncle  Sam  had  restive  child- 


ren  who  could  not  be  driven,  but  who  might  at  times  be 
coaxed  into  a  good  humor. 

Now  came  the  quarrel  between  the  State  Banks  and  the 
National  Bank.  The  National  Bank  charter  expired  in  1811 
and  congress  refusing  to  grant  another,  it  had  to  go  out  of 
business.  In  1812  Louisiana,  a  slave  State,  came  in  to  make 
the  eighteenth  addition. 

When  war  with  England  was  declared  in  order  to  pro 
tect  our  commerce,  again  the  New  England  States  wanted 
to  secede.  Bells  were  tolled,  business  was  suspended,  flags 
were  at  half-mast,  and  the  war  was  condemned  in  town 
meetings — from  the  press  and  the  pulpit.  They  believed  it 
would  ruin  rather  than  protect  commerce.  So  they  wanted 
to  run  away  by  themselves.  When  the  administration  called 
for  militia  these  States  refused  to  obey. 

The  Hartford  Convention,  just  after  our  successful  war 
with  Great  Britain,  proposed  some  amendments  to  the  Con 
stitution,  and  justified  secession  as  a  remedy  for  an  uncon 
genial  union,  but  one  that  "should  not  be  resorted  to  except 
when  absolutely  necessary."  They  confirmed  the  Virginia 
and  Kentucky  resolutions.  The  Democrats  openly  charged 
that  the  object  of  the  convention  was  disunion.  The  Feder 
alist  party  went  to  pieces.  A  new  National  Bank  was  estab 
lished—in  1816— to  continue  twenty  years.  In  1817  Indiana 
the  second  State  from  the  Northwest  Territory,  became  a 
member  of  the  Union,  with  free  labor.  She  was  the  19th 
State  and  asked  permission  to  hold  slaves,  but  Congress 
prohibited  slavery  north  of  the  Ohio  river.  The  North  had 
ere  this  freed  or  sold  her  slaves,  but  the  institution  was 
legalized  in  the  Southern  States.  There  were  now  nineteen 
States  and  five  territories,  viz:  Mississippi,  Michigan, 
Illinois,  Missouri  aud  Alabama.  Emigration  poured  into 
the  West.  Each  section  of  the  young  republic  wratched  its 
own  prosperity  with  jealous  interest.  The  Tariff  question 
caused  excited  sectional  feeling? f  A  tax  on  foreign  goods 
for  the  sake  of  revenue  only  had  satisfied  everybody;  but  a 
protective  tariff  was  unpopular  with  the  South.  The  North, 
having  manufactories,  was  glad  to  protect  her  infant  indus 
tries-  The  South  had  no  manufactories — only  agricultural 
products,and  her  representatives  combatted  the  measure 
with  zeal, /(Explain).  This  tariff  bill  has  always  caused 


opposition,  and  a  glance  at  the  daily  doings  at  Washington 
shows  that  it  is  still  a  bone  of  contention. 

Mississippi  was  admitted  as  a  State  in  1817  with  slaves ; 
Illinois  in  1818,  free;  and  Alabama  in  1819,  slave,  making 
twenty-two  States,  eleven  free  and  eleven  slave  States — an 
equal  division.  In  1819  Florida  was  bought  from  Spain. 

The  greatest  quarrel  came  when  Missouri  was  talked  of 
as  a  State.  The  South  wanted  to  be  left  free  to  choose  slave 
labor;  the  North  feared  that  this  would  give  the  Southern 
legislators  control  of  the  Senate.  There  were  numerous 
slaves  in  Missouri  Territory  and  she  wanted  to  retain  them 
as  a  State.  So  angry  were  the  debaters,  and  so  heated  the 
feeling,  that  it  was  feared  the  country  would  go  to  pieces. 
This  was  as  far  back  as  1819.  Maine,  cut  off  from  Massa 
chusetts,  now  wanted  to  come  into  the  Union.  As  she 
would  be  a  free  labor  State,  the  Southerners  would  not  vote 
for  her  admission  unless  Missouri  could  have  slaves;  he::ce 
the  Missouri  Compromise  Bill,  of  which  we  have  all  heard. 
Senator  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  of  Illinois,  proposed  this  compro 
mise.  The  terms  of  it  admitted  Missouri  with  slaves,  but 
prohibited  slavery  in  any  other  portion  of  the  Louisiana 
Purchase  north  of  a  certain  specified  latitude,  which  was 
the  Southern  boundary  of  Missouri. 

This  quelled  the  matter  for  many  years, but  most  of  us  have 
seen  the  celebrated  steel  engraving,  where  Henry  Clay 
stands  speaking  on  this  question,  and  pouring  oil  on  the 
.  troubled  waters.  His  powerful  oratory  so  often  saved  the 
country  from  dissension  that  he  was  termed  the  Great  Paci 
ficator.  The  gifted  triumver,  Henry  Clay  from  Kentucky, 
Daniel  Webster  from  Massachusetts,  and  John  C.  Calhonn 
from  Soutv6  Carolina,  had  labored  through  years  to  reconcile 
the  national  vexed  questions.  All  three  died  in  the  early 
fifties,  and  remembering  the  results  of  their  mighty  genius, 
there  were  many  to  say,  ten  years  after,  that  if  they  had 
lived  there  would  have  been  no  war,  save  perhaps  a  war  of 
words  in  Congress.  But  their  patriotic  beads  were  laid  low, 
and  there  were  none  to  take  their  places.  The  two  sources 
of  dissension,  slavery  and  the  tariff,  were  always  on  hand  to 
make  a  stormy  session,  so  that  a  detailed  history  of  the 
wrangling  among  the  North,  South  and  West  would  be  a 
tedious  transcription-  What  suited  one  section  was  adverse 


to  the  best  interests  of  the  others.  The  South  abided  strict 
ly  by  the  wording-  of  the  Constitution.  The  North  was  ever 
ready  to  put  a  liberal  construction  on  its  meaning,  and 
naturally  they  took  issue. 

1823  the  Tariff  question  became  so  untenable  that 
>me  of  the  Southern  States  rebelled  outright,  and  protested 
through  their  legislatures  against  the  measure  as  unconsti- 
tutioiiaTr\  Some  favored  secession;  others  advocated  nullifi 
cation,  and  this  was  whajtdgas  done.  They  nullified  the  law 
and  refused  to  stand  by  /fef^lamor  for  State  rights  was  heard 
on  every  sidSTJ  But  they  did  not  take  this  step  till  they  had 
waited  two  or  three  years  for  Congress  to  give  relief  by  re 
ducing  the  tariff.  In  1832  the  crisis  came;  nullification  was 
pronounced  by  South  Carolina,  and  she  forbade  the  collec 
tion  of  tariff  duties  in  her  own  State.  She  also  declared 
that  if  the  United  States  used  force,  she  would  withdraw 
from  the  Union  and  organize  a  separate  government. 

Andrew  Jackson,  who  was  President,  determined  to 
enforce  the  tariff  law  in  the  State,  and  asked  Congress  for 
the  power  to  use  the  army  to  sustain  the  law.  Volunteers 
had  offered  in  South  Carolina,  and  the  country  stood  aghast 
at  the  prospect  of  civil  war.  Here  again  Henry  Clay's 
eloquence  saved  the  day.  He  proposed  the  measure  of 
gradually  reducing  the  tariff  through  a  period  of  ten  years 
till  it  would  provide  only  for  the  expenses  of  the  govern 
ment.  This  removed  the  cause  of  trouble,  so  South  Caro 
lina  recinded  her  act  of  nullification. 

The  South  had  continually  yielded  up  portions  of  her 
immense  territory  to  the  Union,  and  thus  far  there  had  been 
an  equal  balance  of  power  in  the  legislative  voting  of  the 
two  sections.  The  annexation  of  Texas  raised  a  stormy 
conflict.  The  South  hoped  for  a  division  of  this  large  tract 
into  five  slave  States.  In  1835  Arkansas  was  admitted  a  slave 
State.  In  1836  Michigan  came  in  with  free  labor.  After 
the  Mexican  War  the  retrospect  showed  that  since  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  the  North  had  possessed  her 
self  of  nearly  three-fourths  of  all  the  territory  added  to  the 
original  States.  She  fought  the  annexation  of  Texas  because 
it  would  be  slave-holding.  In  1845  Florida  was  admitted 
with  slave  labor.  In  the  same  year  Texas  came  in  as  a 


slave  State.  In  1846  Iowa  came  in  with  free  labor:  in  1848 
Wisconsin,  also  free.  When  California  applied  for  admis 
sion  in  1850  there  was  such  bitter  antagonism  that  it  was 
universally  feared  the  Southern  States  would  secede  from 
the  Union.  Should  she  be  a  free  State  there  would  then  be 
no  other  State  to  offset  it  with  slaves.  It  was  finally  decided 
to  leave  the  choice  to  California  herself.  Henry  Clay  was 
again  at  hand  to  effect  a  satisfactory  compromise.  In  a 
former  paper  I  have  referred  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
whereby  runaway  slaves  should  be  captured  and  sent  back 
to  their  owners. 

But  about  a  decade  before  the  war,  a  great  Abolition  wave 
had  begun  to  flood  the  country.  Thurlow  Weed,  William 
Lloyd  Garrison,  Parson  Brownlow,  John  Brown  and  Mrs. 
Stowe,  by  the  power  of  tongue  and  pen  and  printing  press, 
endeavored  to  stir  up  the  North  to  the  pitch  of  fanatical  des 
peration  and  the  slaves  to  revolt  against  their  masters.  It 
was  not  for  the  sake  of  the  Union.  Perish  the  Union  if  only 
the  slaves  were  freed.  Drive  out  the  Southern  States  if  they 
refused  to  abolish  them.  Their  acts  and  their  words  were 
the  extreme  of  anarchy  and  tyranny. 

f  Jealousy  had  long  formed  a  vindictive  element  in  their 
breasts.  And  how  could  the  two  sections  be  wholly  frater 
nal?  They  had  come  from,  not  only  different  stocks  of  pop 
ulation,  but  from  different  creeds  in  religion  and  politics. 
There  could  be  no  congeniality  between  the  Puritan  exiles 
who  settled  upon  the  cold,  rugged  and  cheerless  soil  of  New 
England,  and  the  Cavaliers  who  sought  the  brig-liter  climate 
of  the  South,  and  who,  in  their  baronial  halls,  felt  nothing 
in  common  with  roundheads  and  regicides.] 

In  1859  the  tragic  death  of  John  Brown  at  Harper's  Fer 
ry — his  execution — and  the  startling  effects  of  the  open  out 
break  against  slavery  put  the  Southern  States  on  guard. 
When  the  next  presidential  election  came  on  it  was  appar 
ent  from  Mr.  Lincoln's  debates  with  Mr.  Douglas,  what,  the 
future  policy  of  the  government  would  be.  When  lie  there 
fore,  won  the  election,  the  South  withdrew  her  representa 
tives  from  Congress,  and  her  states  from  the  Union.  Seces 
sion,  so  long  threatened  by  both  sections  in  turn,  had  come 
at  last.  Everything  had  been  clone  on  the  floor  of  the  House 
to  harmonize  the  issues,  but  without  avail. 

On  December  20,  1860  South  Carolina  passed  the  orclin- 


ance  of  secession.  On  January  9,  1861,  Mississippi  followed; 
Florida,  January  10;  Alabama,  January  11;  Georgia,  Jan 
uary  19:  Louisiana,  January  26;  Texas,  February  1;  Vir 
ginia,  April  17;  Arkansas,  May  6;  North  Carolina,  May  20; 
Tennessee,  June  8. 

To  sum  up  the  Causes  for  the  secession  of  the  South : 

1.  The   State  had  always  been  supreme:  each  was  a 
distinct  sovereignty,  not  subject  to  the  general  government 
in  matters  of  their  own  home  rule. 

2.  The  interests  of  the  South  were  injured  by  the  bur 
den  of  tax  for  the  benefit  of  the  North. 

3.  The  Republican  party  had  determined  that  slavery 
sho.uld  not  be  admitted  in  the  territories — the  Republicans 
were  in  power,  and  foreseeing  further  interference   in  their 
rights,  the  South  thought  the  time  had  come  to  form  an  in 
dependent  government. 

4.  The  North  refused  to  accept  the  compromise  pro 
posed  by  Senator  John  J.   Crittenden    of    Kentucky,  which 
might  have  averted  the  war.     Nor  would  she  consent  to  sub 
mit  the  matter  to  a  vote  of  the  people;  hence  there  was  no 
chance  for  harmony.     The  aggressive  measures  of  the  North 
were  such  that  no  self-respecting  State  in  the   South  could 
endure. 

It  had  come  to  be  a  habit  in  Congress  to  insult  the 
South  because  she  held  slaves. 

Reason  and  right  alike  succumbed  to  prejudice  and  hat 
red,  and  the  dissatisfied  States,  weary  of  wrong  and  oppres 
sion,  sounded  the  note  of  separation;  and  from  every  throat 
burst  the  refrain:— 

We  are  a  band  of  brothers, 
Native  to  the  soil, 
Fighting  for  the  property, 
We've  gained  by  honest  toil. 
***** 

Hurrah!    Hurrah!    for  Southern  rights  hurrah! 
Hurrah!  for  the  Bonnie  Blue  Flag 
That  bears  a  single  star. 


Gbe  Southern  Confederacy 


Read  May  11,  1909. 

More  than  a  hundred  years  ago  the  American  States 
rebelled  against  the  tyranny  of  England,  the  mother  conn- 
try,  and  formed  a  Confederacy  of  and  among  themselves  to 
work  together  for  their  own  welfare  and  prosperity.  It  was 
granted  by  their  constitution,  and  by  the  States,  that  each 
or  any  individual  State  had  the  right  under  provocation,  to 
withdraw  from  the  pact. 

Not  quite  fifty  years  ago  the  Southern  States  of  this 
Union,  having  endured  provocation  after  provocation,  with 
drew  from  their  Northern  oppressors,  and  formed  themselves 
into  the  Confederacy,  whose  brief  existence  ran  red  with  the 
best  blood  of  her  chivalrous  land.  War  was  not  contemplat 
ed.  A  peacable  separation  was  desired.  A  peace  confer 
ence  was  held  to  which  representatives  of  the  States  were 
invited.  Measure  after  measure  was  proposed,  so  that  war 
might  be  averted.  All  were  rejected.  The  recusant  States 
must  be  whipped  back  into  submission  to  the  autocrats  that 
would  direct  their  affairs.  With  restricted  territory,  a 
minority  of  population,  and  home  interests  directly  opposed 
to  those  of  the  over-riding  North,  what  was  there  to  hope 
for  but  continuous  degradation?  Our  leaders  have  been 
accused  of  precipitating  the  war  for  their  own  personal 
ambition.  It  was  another  t% Aaron  Burr  conspiracy."  L,et 
us  hear  what  they  had  to  say  about  it- 

Jefferson  Davis,  the  fearless  soldier  and  upright  citizen 
— the  man  who  by  reason  of  his  supreme  fitness  was  a  little 
later,  chosen  President  of  the  Confederacy,  said  in  his  last 
speech  before  the  United  States  Senate: 

"Secession  is  to  be  justified  upon  the  basis  that  the  States  are 
sovereign.  When  you  deny  us  the  right  to  withdraw  from  a  govern 
ment  which  threatens  our  rights,  we  but  tread  in  the  paths  of  our  fath 
ers  when  we  proclaim  our  independence.  'I  am  sure  I  but  express  the 


feelings  of  the  people  whom  I  represent,  toward  those  whom  you  rep 
resent,  when  I  say  I  hope,  and  they  hope,  for  peacable  relations  with 
you,  though  we  must  part.  This  step  is  taken,  not  in  hostility  to 
others,  not  to  injure  any  section  of  the  country,  not  even  for  our  own 
pecuniary  benefit;  but  from  the  high  and  solemn  motive  of  defending 
and  protecting  the  rights  we  inherited,  and  which  it  is  our  sacred  duty 
to  transmit  unshorn  to  our  children." 

Alexander  Hamilton  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  Vice  Presi 
dent  of  the  Confederacy,  was  a  Whig;,  and  like  others  of  the 
leading:  statesmen,  loved  the  Union.  When  the  North  be 
gan  to  control  the  new  territories,  and  thus  denied  the 
South  her  legitimate  share  in  the  government  thereof,  Mr. 
Stephens  made  a  long  and  powerful  argument  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  at  Washington,  some  years  before  the 
Secession.  He  said  in  part : 

"If  you  men  of  the  North,  by  right  of  superior  numbers,  persist  in 
ignoring  the  claims  of  the  South,  separation  must  follow;  but  why 
not  in  peace?  We  say  as  did  the  patriarch  of  old,  "Let  there  be  no 
strife,  I  pray  thee,  between  me  and  thee  *  *  *  for  we  be  brethren.  Is 
not  the  whole  land  before  thee?  Separate  thyself,  I  pray  thee,  from 
me.  If  thou  will  take  the  left  hand,  then  I  will  go  to  the  right;  or  if 
thou  depart  to  the  right  hand  then  I  will  go  to  the  left."  In  other 
-words  if  we  cannot  enjoy  this  public  domain  in  common,  let  us  divide 
it.  This  is  a  fair  proposition.  *  *  *  Unless  these  bitter  and  section- 
.  al  feelings  of  the  North  be  kept  out  of  the  National  Halls,  we  must  be 
prepared  for  the  worst.  Are  your  feelings  too  narrow  to  make  conces 
sions  and  deal  justly  by  the  whole  country?  Have  you  formed  a  fixed 
determination  to  carry  your  measures  by  numerical  strength,  and  then 
enforce  them  by  the  bayonet?  If  so  the  consequences  be  upon  your 
own  head.  You  may  think  that  the  suppression  of  an  outbreak  in  the 
Southern  States  would  be  a  holiday  job  for  a  few  of  your  Northern 
regiments,  but  you  may  find  to  your  cost,  in  the  end,  that  7,000,000  of 
people,  fighting  for  their  rights,  their  homes,  and  their  hearthstones, 
cannot  be  easily  conquered.  I  submit  the  matter  to  your  deliberate 
consideration." 

Mr.  Stephens,  in  a  speech  before  the  Georgia  legislature 
opposed  secession,  but  said:  ''Should  Georgia  determine  to 
go  out  of  the  Union,  whatever  the  result  may  be,  I  shall 
bow  to  the  will  of  my  people.  Their  cause  is  my  cause,  and 
their  destiny  is  my  destiny." 

These  speeches  and  sentiments  do  not  savor  of  stirring 
up  strife — of  leading  the  South  into  rebellion  "so  that  I  may 
be  king,  and  thou  my  standard  bearer."  There  could  be  no 
treason  in  doing  what  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
permitted.  And  so  every  speech  of  farewell  made  by 


Southern  representatives,  was  one,  first  of  pleading-  for  re 
dress — then  of  sincere  regret  that  self  respect  and  justice 
forced  the  rupture.  The  South  never  desired  war  or  blood 
shed.  The  North  defied  possible  war,  believing  that  within 
a  month,  at  least,  any  resistance  must  Certainly  be  con 
quered.  "We  can  easily  whip  them  back."  Well,  it  was 
done,  but  not  so  easily.  Not  till  years  of  carnage  had 
wrought  their  destiny. 

John  C-  Breckinridge,  of  Kentucky,  Vice  President  of 
the  United  States,  was  termed  the  arch-traitor  of  all.  His 
published  speeches  are  in  the  same  spirit  of  regret,  and  of 
affection  for  the  Union.  In  burning  words  he  showed  how 
the  Northern  representatives  were  trampling  down  the  Con 
stitution,  and  in  eloquent  remonstrance  he  pointed  the  way 
of  escape  from  threatened  disaster.  After  leaving  Congress 
he  entered  the  Confederate  army  as  Major  General,  and 
served  as  Secretary  of  War  in  the  cabinet  of  President 
Davis. 

Robert  Toombs,  of  Georgia,  was  Secretary  of  State.  In 
his  speech  before  the  U.  S.  Senate  in  January,  1861,  he 
reminded  his  hearers  that  the  Southern  States  had  hundreds 
of  sympathizers  among  the  men  of  the  North,  "who  respect 
their  oaths,  abide  by  compacts,  and  love  justice." 

"The  brave  and  patriotic  men  of  the  South  appealed  to  the  Con 
stitution,  they  appealed  to  justice,  they  appealed  to  fraternity,  until 
the  Constitution,  justice  and  fraternity  were  no  longer  listened  to  in 
the  legislative  halls  of  their  country,  and  then,  sir,  they  prepared  for 
the  arbitrament  of  the  sword.  A.nd  cow  you  see  the  glistening  bay 
onet,  and  you  hear  the  tramp  of  armed  men  from  your  Capitol  to  the 
Rio  Grand.  And  all  that  they  have  ever  demanded  is  that  you  abide 
by  the  Constitution,  as  they  have  done.  What  is  it  that  we  demand? 
That  we  may  settle  in  present  or  acquired  territories  with  our  prop" 
erty,  including  slaves,  and  that  when  these  territories  shall  be  admit 
ted  as  States  they  shall  say  for  themselves  whether  they  wish  to  have 
free  or  slave  labor.  That  is  our  territorial  demand.  We  have  fought 
for  this  territory  when  blood  was  its  price.  We  have  paid  for  it  when 
gold  was  its  price.  New  England  has  contributed  very  little  of  blood 
or  money." 

The  senator  goes  on  to  specify  what  further  measures 
the  South  demanded,  in  sharp,  incisive  terms,  but  this  ex 
tract  suffices  to  show  that  our  leaders  used  every  power  of 
tongue  and  moral  suasion  to  stave  off  bloodshed. 

Houston,  Governor  of  Texas,  in   a  public  speech  advised 


constitutional  means — anything  in  reason  to  prevent  war. 
Robert  E-  Lee,  the  great,  the  good,  was  cut  to  the  heart 
at  the  impending  calamity.  One  of  his  friends  said  "I  have 
seldom  seen  a  more  distressed  man."  L,ee  said  "If  Vir 
ginia  stands  by  the  old  Union  so  will  I.  But  if  she  secedes, 
then  I  shall  follow  my  native  state  with  my  sword,  and,  if 
need  be,  with  my  life.  These  are  my  principles  and  I  must 
follow  them." 

Many  public  men  in  the  North  urged  peaceable  secession- 
notably,  Horace  Greely.  Foreign  eyes  were  turned  anxious 
ly  toward  America.  The  South  was  sending  out  millions  of 
pounds  of  cotton  every  year,  of  which  the  greater  part  went 
to  England.  A  London  paper  of  this  decade  said: 

'•The  lives  of  nearly  two  million  of  our  country  are  dependent  upon 
the  cotton  crops  of  the  States.  Should  any  dire  calamity  befall  the 
land  of  cotton,  a  thousand  of  our  merchant  ships  would  rot  idly  in 
dock;  ten  thousand  mills  must  stop  their  busy  looms ;  Wo  thousand 
mouths  would  starve  for  lack  of  food  to  feed  them." 
In  I860,  a  Southern  Senator  said  in  congress; 

"There  are  5,000,000  of  people  in  Great  Britain  who  live  upon 
cotton.  Exhaust  the  supply  one  week,  and  all  .England  is  starving. 
I  tell  you  COTTON  IS  KING." 

But  the  die  was  cast.  The  ordinance  of  secession  of 
South  Carolina  unanimously  passed  December  20,  at  a  quar 
ter  past  one  o'clock.  Great  crowds  were  outside  the  hall  of 
conference  awaiting  results.  The  Charleston  Mercury 
issued  a  extra,  of  which  six  thousand  copies  were  sold. 
The  chimes  of  St.  Michaels  pealed  exultant  notes;  bells  of 
all  other  churches  simultaneously  rang.  The  gun  by  the  post- 
office  christened  "Old  Secession"  belched  forth  in  thunder 
ing  celebration.  Cannons  in  the  citadel  echoed  the  glad 
tidings;  houses  and  shops  emptied  their  people  into  the 
streets;  cares  of  business  and  family  were  forgotten;  all 
faces  wore  smiles — joy  prevailed.  Old  men  ran  shouting 
down  the  streets — friend  met  friend  in  hearty  hand  clasp — 
the  sun  shone  brilliantly  after  three  days  of  rain — volunteers 
dor. tied  their  uniforms  and  hastened  to  their  armories.  New 
palmetto  flags  appeared  everywhere.  K  very  one  wore  a  blue 
cockade  in  his  hat.  Great  enthusiasm  was  shown  at  the 
unfurling  of  a  banner  on  which  blocks  of  stone  in  an  arch 
typified  the  fifteen  Southern  States.  These  were  surmount 
ed  by  a  statue  of  John  C.  Calhoun,  with  the  Constitution 


in  his  hand,  and  the  figures  of  Faith  and  Hope.  At  the 
base  of  the  arch  were  blocks  broken  in  fragments  represent 
ing  the  Northern  States.  A  scroll  interpreted  the  allegory 
to  mean  a  Southern  Republic  built  from  the  ruins  of  the 
other  half  of  the  country. 

The  sentiment  of  the  community  was  shared  by  boys 
firing  noisy  crackers  and  Roman  candles.  The  patricians 
of  Charleston  drank  champagne  with  their  dinners.  That 
night  there  were  grand  ceremonies,  with  military  companies, 
bonfires,  and  glad  demonstrations.  The  sister  States  soon 
caught  the  infection,  and  sharing  in  the  hope  of  indepen 
dence,  they  too  withdrew  from  the  Union. 

On  February  4,  1861,  delegates  from  the  seceded  states- 
Virginia,  Arkansas,  Florida,  Georgia,  North  and  South  Car 
olina,  Mississippi,  Texas,  Louisiana,  Alabama  and  Tennes 
see,  had  met  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  to  organize  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  Confederate  States.  The  President  and 
Commander-in-chief,  Jefferson  Davis,  was  inaugurated  at 
the  State  House,  Montgomery,  February  18,  1861,  and  again 
at  Richmond,  Virginia,  February  22,  1862. 

Unnuguratfcn  of  Jcffmcn  Davis 

The  Congress  of  Delegates  from  the  seceding  States  met 
at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  on  February  4,  1861,  and  prepar 
ed  a  Provisional  Constitution  of  the  new  Confederacy.  This 
Constitution  was  discussed  in  detail,  and  was  adopted  on 
the  8th.  On  the  next  day,  February  9,  an  election  was  held 
for  the  selection  of  Chief  Executive  Officers,  Jefferson 
Davis,  born  in  Kentucky,  but  a  resident  of  Mississippi,  being 
elected  President,  and  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  of  Georgia, 
Vice  President.  While  these  important  events  were  tran 
spiring  Mr.  Davis  was  at  his  home,  Briarfield,  in  Mississippi. 
It  was  his  preference  to  take  active  service  in  the  field,  but 
he  bowed  to  the  will  of  his  people,  and  set  out  for  Montgom 
ery  to  take  the  oath  of  office,  and  assume  the  tremendous 
responsibilities  to  which  he  had  been  assigned  in  the  great 
drama  about  to  be  enacted.  On  his  way  to  Montgomery  he 
passed  through  Jackson,  Grand  Junction,  Chattanooga, 
West  Point  and  Opelika.  At  every  principal  station  along 


the  route  he  was  met  by  thousands  of  his  enthusiastic  fel 
low-countrymen,  clamoring  for  a  speech.  During  the  trip 
he  delivered  about  twenty-five  short  speeches,  and  his  recep 
tion  at  Montgomery  was  an  ovation.  Eight  miles  from  the 
capital  he  was  met  by  a  large  body  of  distinguished  citizens, 
and  amid  the  huzzas  of  thousands  and  the  booming  of  cannon 
he  entered  the  city. 

From  the  balcony  of  the  Exchange  Hotel  he  addressed, 
shortly  after  his  arrival,  the  immense  throng  that  filled  the 
streets.  February  18th  had  been  chosed  for  the  day  of  the 
inauguration,  and  as  the  time  drew  near  the  excitement 
increased.  The  ceremony  was  carried  out  with  all  the 
solemnity  and  ceremony  that  could  be  thrown  about  it. 
The  military  display  was  a  beautiful  one,  and  the  martial 
maneuvers  of  the  troops  seemed  to  portend  a  victorious 
issue.  A  platform  was  erected  in  front  of  the  portico  of  the 
State  House,  and  standing  with  uplifted  hand  on  this  emi 
nence,  while  all  the  approaches  were  filled  with  vast  crowds 
of  people,  Jefferson  Davis  took  the  oath  of  office. 

As  the  hour  of  noon  approached  an  immense  procession 
was  formed,  and  to  the  music  of  fife,  drum,  and  artillery  it 
moved  toward  the  Capitol  building.  On  the  platform  await 
ing  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Davis  were  the  members  of  Congress, 
the  President  of  that  body,  the  Governor  of  Alabama  and 
Committees,  and  a  number  of  other  distinguished  persons. 
Round  after  round  of  cheers  greeted  Mr.  Davis.  After 
being  seated  on  the  platform  the  Rev-  Dr.  Manley  arose  and 
offered  an  impressive  prayer.  President  Davis  arose  and 
read  his  inaugural  address;  then  turning,  he  placed  one 
hand  upon  the  Bible,  and  with  the  other  uplifted,  he  listened 
to  the  oath.  His  face  was  upturned  and  reverential  in  ex 
pression,  At  the  conclusion  of  the  oath,  in  solemn,  earnest 
voice,  he  exclaimed:  "So  help  me  God!"  He  lowered  his 
head  in  tears,  and  hundreds  wept  as  they  viewed  the  solemn 
scene.  Thus  was  officially  launched  upon  a  tempestuous 
sea  the  Confederate  Ship  of  State- 

Order  of  procession 

Music. 

Military  Escort  of  Montgomery  Fusileers,  Capt,  Schens- 


sler;  Montgomery  Rifles,  Capt.  Farris;  Eufaula  Rifles, 
Capt  Baker;  Columbus  (Ga.)  Guard,  Capt.  Sims. 

President-Elect,  Vice  President  and  Chaplain  in  an 
open  carriage,  drawn  by  six  horses. 

Congressional  Committee  on  Ceremonies. 

Various  Committees. 

Commissioners  to  the  Government  from  States  other 
than  the  States  of  the  Confederacy. 

Ministers  of  the  Gospel,  all  in  carriages. 

Citizens  in  carriages  and  oh  foot. 

The  Department  of  State,  of  Justice,  the  Treasury,  War, 
Navy,  Post-office,  the  various  military  corps,  with  officers 
and  attaches — all  in  short,  that  it  takes  to  form  and  conduct 
a  government,  was  ordered  from  the  best  picked  material. 
A  Constitution  was  framed  like  that  of  the  United  States,  in 
the  main;  but  the  unsatisfactory  clauses  that  had  wrought 
such  havoc  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  were  changed  for  the 
better. 

There  were  in  the  Confederate  service  one  commarKler- 
in-chief,  seven  generals,  nineteen  lieutenant-generals, 
eighty-four  mnjor-generals  and  three  hundred  and  thirteen 
brigadier-generals.  The  roster  of  the  Union  greatly  exceed 
ed  these  numbers. 

When  all  the  departments  were  organized  ready  for  the 
administration  of  the  new  republic,  commissioners  were  sent 
to  President  Lincoln  at  Washington  to  negotiate  for  an  equit 
able  transfer  of  Southern  forts,  and  for  terms  of  an  amicable 
separation.  They  were  refused  audience.  Every  method 
known  to  national  and  international  arbitration  was  attempt 
ed  without  success;  so  when  the  strife  was  precipitated,  the 
South  had  no  resource  left  but  to  resist  by  arms,  no  matter 
how  overwhelming  the  odds  of  the  invading  section. 

On  April  12,  1861,  General  Beauregard,  learning  that  a 
fleet  was  forcing  its  way  in  to  Charleston  harbor  to  join 
Major  Anderson  at  Sumter,  opened  fire  upon  the  fort.  The 
North  charged  the  war  was  thus  inaugurated  by  the  South. 
The  South  believed  its  action  was  necessary  for  self-defence. 
However  that  might  be,  it  was  the  onset  of  battle — of  the 
greatest  Civil  War  the  world  has  ever  known.  President 
Lincoln  and  President  Davis  both  called  for  troops.  Mass 
meet'uirs  were  held  in  every  part  of  the  country  North  and 


,. 

South.  The  roll  of  the  drum  and  the  shrill  fife  of  the  inarch 
were  heard  in  every  direction.  Muster  rolls  were  drawn  up, 
drills  were  in  progress  in  hall  and  on  the  green.  Every 
youth  rushed  to  take  up  arms.  After  the  great  Confederate 
victory  at  Bull  Run,  some  one  wrote: 

"They  have  met  at  last — as  storm-clouds 

Meet  in  heaven ; 
And  the  Northmen  back  and  bleeding 

Have  been  driven. 

And  their  thunders  have  been  stilled, 
And  their  leaders  crushed  or  killed, 
And  their  ranks,  with  terror  thrilled, 
Rent  and  riven." 

They  had  indeed  met.  And  they  met  and  met  again- 
Throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  prolific  country 
where  cotton  was  king,  the  honest  achievements  of  a  hun 
dred  years  were  ground  into  dust  by  the  engines  of  de 
struction. 

The  North  came  on  as  invaders;  the  South  stood  firm 
as  defenders ;  and  in  all  the  histories  of  the  struggle  this 
fact  should  be  pre-eminent. 

Of  the  hundred  battles  fought  only  that  of  Gettysburg 
was  on  Northern  soil.  The  beautiful  lands  of  the  garden 
spot  of  earth,  as  I  have  said,  were  torn  and  pillaged  and 
ruined,  not  alone  by  the  fortunes  of  civilized  warfare,  but  by 
the  ghastly  horrors  of  cruelty  and  needless  vandalism.  It  is 
not  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  fight  those  battles  over.  The 
strife  lasted  four  years.  The  population  of  the  North  was 
22,600,000;  that  of  the  South  9,000,000,  of  whom  three  and 
one-half  millions  were  slaves.  The  North  was  four  times 
as  great  in  numbers  as  the  South. 

The  North  had  three  times  as  many  armies.  The  South 
could  not  get  enough  small  arms  for  many  months.  All 
foundries  for  cannon,  and  all  except  two  powder  mills  were 
in  the  North,  The  North  had  food  and  provisions  in  abund 
ance.  The  South  planted  cotton  and  tobacco,  but  could 
not,  even  in  times  of  peace,  raise  enough  food,  but  were 
accustomed  to  buy  from  the  North  and  from  Europe. 

The  Union  had  a  treasury  and  a  navy;  the  Confederacy 
had  neither.  The  North  could  renew  supplies  from  abroad. 
The  Southern  ports  were  blockaded  and  many  necessaries 
of  life  were  shut  off.  The  Confederacy  set  to  work  to  make 
arms,  ammunition,  blankets,  saddles,  harness  and  other 


necessities.  Bells  from  churches  and  halls,  dinner  bells, 
plantation  and  fire  bells,  along  with  stray  pieces  of  metal, 
were  melted  and  cast  into  cannon.  Old  nails  were  saved 
and  blacksmiths  made  of  them  clumsy  needles,  pins  and 

scissors. 

For  coffee  was  used  burnt  rye,  okra,  corn,  bran,  chick- 
ory  and  sweet  potato  peeling's.  For  tea,  raspberry  leaves, 
corn  fodder  and  sassafras  root.  1  here  was  not  enough 
bacon  to  be  had  to  keep  the  soldiers  alive.  Sorghum  was 
used  for  sugar. 

The  women  and  girls  helped  in  every  possible  manner. 
Silk  dresses  were  made  into  banners,  woolen  dresses  and 
shawls  into  soldiers'  shirts — carpets  into  blankets— curtains, 
sheets,  and  all  linens,  were  made  into  lint  and  bandages  for 
the  wounded.  Soft  white  fingers  knitted  socks,  shirts  and 
gloves,  to  keep  the  cold  from  the  men  in  the  trenches.  Cal 
ico  was  $10  per  yard  quite  early  in  the  strife.  Homespun 
was  made  upon  the  old  colonial  wheels  and  looms  that  had 
been  kept  as  souvenirs  and  curios.  Buttons  were  obtained 
from  persimmon  seeds  with  holes  pierced  for  eyes.  Women 
plaited  their  hats  from  straw  or  palmetto  leaf,  and  used 
feathers  from  barnyard  fowls. 

One  mourning  dress  would  be  loaned  from  house  to 
house  as  disaster  came.  Shoes  were  made  of  wood,  or  car 
riage  curtains,  buggy  tops,  saddle  tops  or  anything  like 
leather.  There  were  thin  iron  soles  like  horse  shoes.  They 
were  patched  with  bits  of  old  silk  dresses.  For  little  child 
ren  shoes  were  made  from  old  morocco  pocket  books.  Flour 
was  $250  per  barrel;  meal,  $50  a  bushel;  corn,  $40  a  bushel; 
oats,  $25;  blackeyed  peas,  $45;  brown  sugar,  $10;  coffee, 
$12;  tea,  $35  a  pound;  French  merino  or  mohair  sold  at  $800 
to  $1,000  a  yard;  cloth  cloak,  $1,000  and  $1,500;  Balmoral 
boots,  $250  the  pair;  French  gloves,  $125  and  $150.  The 
stores  came  to  be  opened  only  on  occasions. 

Salt  was  the  most  difficult  to  obtain  of  all  the  necessities. 
The  earth  from  old  smoke  houses  was  dug  up  and  boiled  for 
the  drippings  of  ham  and  bacon — these  being  crystalized  by 

a  primative  process. 

Newspapers  were  printed  on  coarse  half-sheets.     Every 

scrap  of  blank  paper  in  old  note  books,  letters  or  waste  was 
utilized,  Wall  paper  and  pictures  were  turned  for  envelopes 


Glue  from  the  peach  tree  gum  served  to  seal  the  covers. 
Poke  berries,  oak  balls,  and  green  persimmons,  furnished 
ink. 

The  devotion  of  the  people  was  sublime,  always  dividing; 
with  their  neighbors;  and  the  refugees  were  noted  for 
heroic  acts.  The  negroes  were  faithful  in  guarding  the 
families,  all  of  whom  were  left  unprotected,  and  in  working 
the  plantations.  Nowhere  in  the  annals  of  nations  has  such 
fidelity  been  known. 

Two  negro  men  belonging  to  an  army  officer's  widow 
who  lived  with  her  young  daughters  on  an  Arkansas  plan 
tation,  conveyed  $50,000  in  gold  in  the  cushions  of  an  ambu 
lance  to  Houston,  Texas — a  place  of  safety  from  marauding 
troops,  who  burned  the  house  and  cabins,  and  captured  the 
live  stock.  The  Yankees  would  not  molest  escaping  negroes. 
These  were  faithful  to  their  trust.  Similar  instances  are 
legion.  L,eal  and  true,  always  and  everywhere. 

The  memory  of  those  hardships  cannot  die  until  all  the 
survivors  are  dead.  Fertile  fields  and  pleasant  villages  were 
destroyed  by  great  armies.  Two  billions  of  dollars  in  slaves 
were  swept  away.  Cotton,  the  chief  staple,  was  burned  or 
captured.  Wealth  placed  in  Confederate  bonds  was  lost 
forever.  Of  the  1,000,000  men  in  the  Southern  army,  three- 
fourths  were  killed;  400,000  were  crippled,  and  no  estimate 
was  made  of  the  wounded  who  recovered.  The  cost  of  the 
war  was  $8,000,000.  Men  and  horses  perished  of  starvation 
and  disease.  The  Southern  Confederacy  died,  not  for  lack 
of  the  will  and  of  the  spirit  to  fight  on — for  not  even  Wash 
ington's  ragged  troops  at  Valley  Forge  endured  greater 
sufferings  or  displayed  greater  heroism.  The  Confederacy 
died  of  exhaustion. 

I  have  said  that  the  women  of  the  South  gave  all  their 
energies  and  engenuities  to  the  cause.  They  shared  the 
burdens  of  conflict.  They  encouraged  and  stimulated  the 
men  by  their  sympathy  and  cheerful  fortitude.  To  their 
country  they  gave  their  dearest  and  best,  and  bore  up  brave 
ly  in  defeat  as  well  as  in  victory.  With  silent  courage  they 
faced  privation  and  danger.  They  nursed  the  sick  and 
wounded;  took  charge  of  farms  and  plantations.  With  won 
derful  resource  they  supplied  the  growing  deficiencies  in 
domestic  affairs.  They  cared  for  and  directed  the  thous- 


ands  of  negroes  left  dependent  upon  them.  They  never 
lost  their  trust  in  God,  or  in  the  righteousness  of  their  cause, 
though  their  loved  ones  languished  in  prison,  or  lay  dead 
on  the  battlefield.  Their  patriotism  and  womanly  fidelity 
will  be  held  in  honor  while  the  world. lasts.  • 
*  *  *  *  * 

And  the  women  refugees  from  the  Border  States  suffered 
in  addition,  the  cutting  off  of  news  from  those  they  left  behind 
them.  Letters  went  by  chance  messengers  through  the 
lines,  or  around  by  Liverpool,  England,  and  finally,  by 
special  indulgence,  in  one-page  missives,  unsealed,  by  flag- 
of-truce,  via  Newport  News  and  Norfolk,  Va. 

Sometimes  months  of  silence  elapsed.  Oftener  the 
letters  were  lost.  In  many  cases  they  straggled  in  after 
two,  or  three  years. 

Forty-four  years  have  dragged  their  slow  lengths  since 
the  last  roll-call.  We,  the  survivors  and  descendants,  have 
buckled  on  the  armor  of  faithfulness  and  are  honoring  the 
memory  of  our  martyred  heroes.  We  are  rearing  monuments 
to  perpetuate  their  deeds  of  valor.  We  are  clearing  their 
revered  names  from  aspersion.  We  are  striving  to  educate 
the  generations  to  come  in  the  true  history  of  their  marvel 
ous  struggle  for  the  inalienable  rights  of  every  free-born 
American.  How  sublime  that  struggle!  How  undaunted 
their  attitude !  How  unsurpassed  their  fortitude  amid  the 
upheaval  of  their  colossal  ruin !  The  conquered  banner's 
tattered  folds  hang  on  the  wall,  her  standard-bearer  lies  in 
the  dust— the  sod  is  green  above  the  heads  of  her  valiant 
leaders — her  rank  and  file  sleep  in  many  an  unknown  grave. 
We  are  in  the  cooling  valleys  of  peace,  where  refreshing 
lies,  and  above  us  waves  the  flag  of  the  old,  old  Union  our 
people  once  loved  so  well.  So  mote  it  be.  We  were  loyal 
to  the  powers  that  were;  we  are  loyal  to  the  powers  that  be. 
Good  citizenship  is  now,  as  ever,  the  watchword  of  the 
South.  We  do  not  forget  our  martyrs,  Upon  our  devoted 
heads  rests  this  sacred  duty  of  consecration.  Let  us  chng 
together  in  a  cause  so  noble.  Let  us  merge  all  thought  of 
self  in  the  glorious  work  that  lies  before  us. 

And  what  of  our  beautiful,  our  historic  southland,  about 
wlr'ch  the  halo  of  poesy  so  lovingly  lingers?  Nature  and 


man  have  wrought  a  mighty  restoration.  Through  the 
grand  old  States  of  Virginia  and  South  Carolina,  whose 
annals  contain  names  which  will  ever  adorn  the  pages  of 
history,  down  into  the  prosperous  States  of  Georgia,  Ala 
bama  and  Mississippi,  through  Louisiana,  unrivaled  in 
fertility,  on  to  the  vast  expanse  of  Texas,  whose  coming 
wealth  and  power  may  not  be  measured,  there  arise  prophetic 
voices  from  field,  forest,  mine  and  workshop,  foretelling  the 
grand  stirring  into  life  of  extended  commerce,  enterprise 
and  capital.  Her  products  have  increased  and  multiplied  in 
kind  and  in  variety,  till  we  hear  in  the  Senate  chamber  of 
Congress  an  eloquent  plea  for  the  protection  of  her  interests 
in  the  country's  political  economy.  We  hear  from  the  lips 
of  the  Kentucky  Senator  a  full  recognition  of  our  worth,  our 
greatness  and  alas,  the  tardy  acknowledgement  of  our 
rights. 

These  beautiful  States  are  swept  by  the  ocean  and 
mountain  winds,  and  nurtured  by  the  glowing  sun  and  gentle 
rains.  The  palmetto  and  the  cypress  and  the  lordly  live 
oak,  stand  above  the  glowing  orange  grove  and  fragrant 
magnolia  bloom,  and  the  gray  moss  on  the  trees,  wearing 
the  uniform  of  the  men  in  grey,  wafts  a  solemn  requiem 
above  their  narrow  beds.  The  light  of  prosperity  spreads 
transcendent  radiance  over  the  land.  The  throb  of  com 
mercial  triumph  pulsates  in  the  hum  of  the  factory,  in  the 
smelting  furnace,  and  ascends  in  the  soft  twilight  from  the 
rich  furrows  of  their  incomparable  fields;  while  the  salt  sea 
billows,  as  they  rock  her  shipping  and  dash  against  pier 
and  wharf,  add  their  exultant  voices  in  prophecy  of  still 
greater  prosperity. 

May  advancing  wealth  rebuild  her  mansions  and  fill  her 
coffers,  and  fittingly  crown  the  efforts  of  her  ambition  and 
of  her  genius.  May  she  never  lose  the  aspirations  that  have 
made  her  people,  through  sunshine  and  storm,  a  lofty  and 
noble  race. 

E.  D.  POTTS. 


UNIVERF 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


DBRARY  US 

3 

JAN  1  4  1962 

TShrfesEF 

• 

20M*r'63fiA 

7  ^U  "> 

^V^MX1                              UnlS^SES-U 

